I walked into school the next day much better than the hiding self that I was when I left. I didn't have a head ache. I wasn't sick. I made this happen.. Well Jack, Sally, and Emily obviously helped, but I'd like to think I did something in my constant moping. I was greeted by Sam who looked quite well in his orange pajamas. "Hi Sam."

"Hi Harry."

Sam sounded like a 7 year old with a 50 year old smokers cough, but he was a good guy. Great kid, and down here he was the idolized trick or treater. No one could do it like he could. He had become so quickly my best friend it was as if we were meant to be. Though he looks like Jacks son a lot more than I do. His head was a pumpkin his eyes were a hazy gold that Shone in reflective light. They looked like Amber gems that people in the over world would pay thousands of dollars for. "How are you today?"

He shrugged. He looked up at me. "I'm not exactly in tip top being quiet and stalking a city for a night.. I wanna be with Lock stock and Barrel... Even you."

I looked at him. I had no idea what that meant. What was I going to be doing? Wasn't what he did a bigger deal than me? "Hey you do a lot more than I do.."

"No I don't Harry.. I'm not the pumpkin Prince."

"You kinda are..." I stopped. "If you minimize the killing part you're so much so it's a role you were made for.."

"I find it funny you're speaking of Roles Harry." Blythe said.

"Look It's the Ghoul of the school." Sam snickered.

"You seem full of yourself today Samuel."

"It's SAM." He snapped "And if you call me Samuel again I'll-"

I looked at him.

"I won't maim you so bad your father won't be able to bring you back." He said with a sullen tone. He understood what that look meant. It meant 'I thought we just discussed no killing and there he was making a threat. ' "You know Harry you don't see it but I do.. I see why Jack and Sally picked you."

Lock waved at Sam. She had put her ill gotten affections to a much more deserving source. Sam quickly waved her over.

"Well Harry?"

"I think you're out of your mind Blythe.. I think your father has been talking a little too loudly to your mother.. I don't know, but I'm not needed on the high heavens or the upper world and I think you should leave it alone."

Blythe looked at me her brow coming together like two divine devilish snakes. "You're a fool! You think you'll be a skellington forever!?"

"No Blythe.. I don't think I know... As I live the dead and I breath the air of the night shade I will be a skellington. When the time comes for me to haunt the earth with my mother father and who ever else comes. I'm going to be there for twenty four long hours and then I'll return. I'm not going back."

Blythe looked. "Harry.. You're meant for more than this."

"I know."

"You do?"

"I do... But that doesn't mean I want it. The man killed my parents and tired to kill me.. Instead he left a part of him with me.. And he nor you seem to care that I'm dead! Is that what you want you want me to serve some dead dude? You want some batman and Joker show down? Well read a comic book don't make it worse.."

She looked at me. She looked at me with desire, want, greed, maybe just anger.. I've read all of Sallys romance novels out of boredom so it all sounds the same.

"I want us to be friends." I said "I don't want to talk about this bigger than us stuff.. I want to talk about broom riding and what's new in the not so green play ground. I don't want to grow old Blythe.. I don't want to be the person who will change the world. I just want a family... Would you fight this guy if he killed your mother and father?"

Her mouth froze in mid opening. "Well you're right I guess.. I didn't know.. I knew that there was something wrong with you, but you and I.. We can be friends."

I smiled and looked at her. "I'd like that."

"So would I." She looped her arm in mine. "I am sorry I pushed you Harry, but I know about the life you don't want and I know about what's gonna happen it's my gift... And I'm not going to push you but it's something you should consider..."

"Why?"

"Because we're not going to be the only friends who need you."

When she said that I thought about the two from my dream. What if they did need me? I didn't know them enough to care.. But it was something to think about. I pondered it for a moment. She looked at me and could tell I was thinking about it.

"It's hard to see.. It's hard.. I just want to be happy."

"You will be.. One day.. You'll be back in the arms of Jack and Sally.. Your real parents.. Everything.. It's going to be okay."

"Wow Blythe you always know what to say." I smiled.

She smiled back and then looked at me and then to Locke giving Sam a kiss goodbye. "He doesn't like me much."

"He doesn't like anyone."

"He likes you.."

"Well to hear you tell it I'm not just anyone."

"You're not, you're the Harry Potter."

"No, I'm the Harry Potter-Skellington." I corrected her.

She laughed. "Oh how I have forgotten Lord Skellington."

"I am no lord.. Just a Skellington."

"Should I give you a kiss before class?"

I felt my unbeating heart flood to the floor. "I.. If you want."

She kissed my cheek. Her kiss was cold, but it was warm. It meant something. And that was special. "Until later.."

"L-Later.." I waved her off and then stood there. For once I was the normal 11 year old boy with a crush on a girl. I wasn't afraid to go home to be a slave. Or to have my cousin go and tell Blythe I was nothing but a servant. I didn't have to worry about being less than. I was something to everyone I came in contact with. No one walked past me and seen nothing. They seen something and I appreciated them for it.

I appreciated having friends. I appreciated being cared for by a man and two women who thoroughly cared about me, and now that I knew it wouldn't be ripped away from me. I took a moment to enjoy it. I took a moment to listen. To feel. I took a moment to be someone. To be the same happy I was afraid of. And it felt good. It felt so good I felt tears. I felt everything. And for once I liked it. I liked being free from the abuse and the tragedy of what I was. I was ready to be with them Jack, Sally, Emily, and all my friends.

I walked to my class and sat in my seat like a normal student. Who knew dead would become my normalcy. Become the niche I never thought I found. For once in my life it was really normal, and I'd do anything to keep it.